Workmen's advocate., 1887-01-01
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL.
BY KARL MARX.
Translated by J. l.. JoYNEs.
 lcoNTINuED,


 ubly connected as the bourgeois econom- ists assert? We can hardly believe that the fatter capital becomes. the more will its slave be pampered. The bour- geoisie is too much enlightened and keeps its accounts much too carefully, to care for that privilege of the feudal no- bility, the ostentation of splendor in it's retinue. The very conditions of bour- geois existence compel it to keep careful accounts.
 We must therefore enquire more close ly into the effect which the increase of productive capital has upon wages.
 With the general increase of the pro- ductive capital of a bourgeois society a manifold accumulation of laborforce takes place. The capitalists increase in number and in power. The increase in the number of capitalists increases the competition between capitalists. Their increased power gives them the means of leading into the industrial battlefield mightier armies of laborers furnished with gigantic implements of war
 The one capitalist can only succeed in driving the other off the field at taking possession of his capital by selling his wares at cheaper rate. In order to sell more cheaply without running himself, he must produce more cheaply that is, he must heighten as much as possible the productiveness of labor. But the most effective way of making labor more pro- ductive is by means of more complete subdivision of labor, or by the more ex- tended use and continual improvement of machinery. The more numerous the departments into which labor is divided, and the more gigantic the scale in which machinery is introduced, in so much the greater proportion does the cost of pro- duction decline. and so much the more fruitful is the labor, Thus arises man. fold rivalry among capitalists with the object of increasing the subdivision of labor and machinery, and keeping up the utmost possible progressive rate of ex- ploitation.
 Now if by means of greater subdivis- ion of labor, by the employment and inn provement of new machines, or by the more skilful and profitable use of the forces of nature, a capitalist has discov- cred the means of producing larger amount of commodities than his com petitors with the same amount of labor; whether it be stored-up labor or direct if he can. for instance, spin complete yard of cotton in the time that his con- petitors take to spin half-a-yard how will this capitalist proceed to act?
 He might go on selling af-a-yard at its former market price; but that would not have the effect of driving his oppo- nents out of the field and increasing his own sale But the need of increasing his sale has increased in the same proportion as his production. The more effective and more expensive means of production which he has called into existence enable him, of course, to sell his wares cheaper, but they also compel him to sell more wares and to secure much larger mar ket for them. Our capitalist will there fore proceed to sell his half a-yard of cotton cheaper than his competitors.
 The capitalist will not, however, sell his complete yard so cheaply as his con- petitors sell the half, although it's entire production does not cost him more than the production of half costs the others For in that case he would gain nothing, but would only get back the cost of it's IC lIlCItdSt All his receipts would result from his hay ing set in motion larger capital, but not from having made his capital more profit able than that of the others. Besides he gains the end he is aiming at, if he prices his goods slight percentage lower than his competitors. He drives them off the field, and wrests from them at any rate portion of their sale, if only he under sells them. And finally we must re- member that the price current always stands either above or below the cost of production, according as the sale of a commodity is transacted at favorable or unfavorable period of business. Ac- cording as the market price of yard of cloth is above or below it's former cost of production, the percentage will alter in which the capitalist who has employed the new and profitable means of produc- tion exceeds in it's sale the actual cost of its production to him.
 But our capitalist does not find his privilege very lasting. Other rival capi talists introduce with more or less rapid ity the sane e1nachines and tile same suD- division of labor; and this introduction becomes general, until the price of the yard of cloth is reduced not only below it's old, but below it's new cost of produc- tion. Thus the capitalists find themselves relatively in the same position in which they stood before the introduction of the new means of production; and if they are by these means enabled to offer twice the product for the same price, they now find themselves compelled to offer the IL. e.. .II T price. From the standpoint of these new means of production the old game begins anew. There is greater subdivis- ion of labor, more machinery. and a more rapid progress in the exploitation of both. Whereupon competition brings about the same reaction against this re-